A Killing Tree: Detective Inspector Zig Batten 1

Escape to the country? Or escape to murder?

November, cider-apple time, and Inspector Zig Batten is regretting his enforced transfer from urban Yorkshire to not-so-sleepy Somerset. When hikers discover a dead body, propped against a tree on a lonely hill, Batten needs every grain of his Northern sarcasm to raise his spirits as he seeks out the killer.

Is it a coincidence the victim worked on the vast private estate of Wake Hall - home of a shifty horse-sales business run by a slap-happy Northern adversary? What exactly is in the horse-boxes that trundle into Wake Hall? And does the maverick Lady Wake know - or care?

Batten's delving is plagued by tensions within his new team, disappearing witnesses, self-doubt, poisoned guard dogs - and a shocking revelation.

Then, as Christmas draws near, the human cost of crime begins to escalate...

From the Author

- A Killing Tree takes place in the real landscape of Somerset in the West Country of England - famous for its pretty villages, apple orchards and vintage cider-makers - all marred by murder.

- The sequel, A January Killing, begins with a 'Wassail' - an ancient winter ceremony using music and drumming to rid the orchards of evil spirits. Shotguns are then fired into the bare branches to spark a fresh crop of apples. But one particular shotgun has far more malicious intent...

- In An Easter Killing, the inhabitants of East Thorne wake on Good Friday morning to a heinous sight on Crown of Thorns Hill, which looms over the village...

- When, in The Killing of Queen Mab, a convalescing Batten asks why vicious hands would slit the throat of the once-beautiful 'Queen Mab', his search for answers whisks him from Somerset to his native Yorkshire, to Cornwall and to the shores and mountains of Greece. And into danger...